Pfizer reports promising RSV vaccine findings

🎃 In case you were wondering how the “One Percent” live: Supermodel Heidi Klum dressed as a worm for Halloween.  

Today in health, Pfizer said its RSV vaccine was found to be effective at preventing symptoms in infants when the shot was administered to their mothers while pregnant. 

Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter?

RSV vaccine helps prevent severe illness: Pfizer

An experimental maternal vaccine for RSV from Pfizer, administered during pregnancy, was effective at preventing infants from developing severe symptoms from birth through their first six months, the company said. 

• Unlike some other RSV vaccine candidates, Pfizer’s shot is administered during pregnancy, with the aim of transferring antibodies from mothers to infants.   
• Other maternal vaccines include the flu shot, as well as one for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. 

The company said that it plans to file the data on the vaccine with regulators by the end of the year, with the hope of having it available by next winter.  

There are currently no vaccines available for RSV, and the only treatment is monoclonal antibodies, usually reserved for extremely high-risk cases, including infants born prematurely or those with chronic diseases related to the heart and lungs. 

• According to Pfizer’s news release, the vaccine reduced the rate of severe illness in infants that required medical attention by about 82 percent through the first 90 days of life.  
• That efficacy dropped to 69 percent over a baby’s first six months, meaning protection likely wanes as children get older. 

RSV season usually occurs during colder weather, though it’s been hitting unusually hard and early this year, contributing to a wave of respiratory infections that is overwhelming children’s hospitals nationwide.   

Read more here. 

Online requests for abortion pills spiked after Dobbs

Telemedicine requests for abortion pills spiked dramatically after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, according to new research released Tuesday. 

The analysis, led by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and published in the medical journal JAMA, analyzed requests made through Aid Access, a nonprofit telemedicine organization based in Austria that provides abortion pills for home use in states where the practice is restricted. 

• During the initial period of the study from September 2021 to May 2022, when abortion was legal in every state, the organization received an average of about 83 requests a day. After the opinion draft was leaked, between May and June 23, daily requests increased to about 137.  
• After the Supreme Court released its opinion on June 24…